Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Edinburgh restaurants: Kalpna, Vegetarian Indian

Today is our last full day in Edinburgh. It has been a day of packing and sorting through belongings. I arranged to meet my friend Clare for lunch at The Auld Hoose for vegan nachos. When I arrived with Sylvia, the barman was very apologetic about Edinburgh laws stating that children cannot be in a pub in sight of the bar and they did not have a dining room. Luckily one of the other places I had wanted to visit in Edinburgh was just around the corner. We walked across to Kalpna and were very pleased with our lunch.

Kalpna is an Indian vegetarian restaurant that has been there for many years and has always had a good reputation. I have not eaten there since I left Edinburgh about 15 years ago but it was still providing good food. The lunch is a buffet of rice, paratha, three curries, salads, sauces, potato fritters and potato dumplings. It was all very good.

I asked the names of the curries and was told, lentil, pea and potato, and spinach and corn. When I asked what the sauce was for one I was told pea and potato curry. I can tell you they were very good, especially the dal (with lentils or split peas). It wasn't really oily as some curries can be and the vegetables tasted freshly cooked. I appreciated that they weren't overly spicy. Sylvia and I would have preferred naan bread but the parathas were nice and warm.

We were also impressed with the decor. The walls of the whole restaurant were stuccoed with little mirrors used to make patterns and pictures. They were fun to look for pictures with Sylvia to keep her amused while she ate her rice, tomato and cucumber.

Then we headed off to Summerhall for a cake and a drink to take to the playground at the Meadows for Sylvia to enjoy the swings and roundabouts once more.

I still have a few Edinburgh posts that I hope to share but tomorrow we will be off to Paris.

4 comments:

I never ate at Kalpna's, but know of it as I used to pass it by when I visited Edinburgh. I would often go to the Mosque Kitchen - on the same road further down as it was reasonably prices, wonder if if it is still there. I am glad the spiciness of the food met with your approval.

Thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you. Please share your thoughts and questions. Annoyingly the spammers are bombarding me so I have turned on the pesky captcha code (refresh to find an easy one if you don't like the first one)

Search Green Gourmet Giraffe

About Me

Recipes and reflections in which our vegetarian heroine dreams of being tall and graceful as a giraffe; being a goddess in the kitchen; and being gladdened by green gadgets, green food and green politics because green is the colour of hope. See About Me for more info.